“Dancing Moons Festival”
Oakland Ballet
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
March 17, 2023 7:30 pm
Many Events of Diverse Design
The Oakland Ballet, under the direction of Graham Lustig, has reached into the Oakland community in many ways, staging dances from the many cultures of that diverse town.
Here, he has brought his company to the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and invited several talented Asian choreographers to ‘fill the bill. ”Dancing Moons Festival” was a delight.
Phil Chan and Caili Quan were the principal choreographers for Part One of the Festival. Works included an 18th century “Ballet des Porcelaines” or “The Teapot Prince” (1739) music by Grandval…to a ‘meditation on America the Beautiful entitled “Amber Waves”. All these three opening works were danced with remarkable skill, clarity and dramatic projection.
After Intermission the entire group participated in what was entitled “Exquisite Corpse”, a game during which each choreographer creates a solo (head), group (torso), duet (legs), after which the “nine sections will be woven together to create an “Exquisite Corpse.” What followed was dynamic, often humorous, always well performed and marvelously costumed. Costume Design was by Vinyl Zhang and Bethany Deal.
The nine works that are included in “Exquisite Corpse” are performed by eleven dancers, all very skilled and capable of projection their enthusiasm for dance. The movement of this work included not just the expected ballet dance technique (steps on toe shoes (en pointe), multiple turns and lifts, tremendous jumps by both men and women), but also lots of ‘contemporary movies’ torso, shoulders and hips, fingers and heads. This was lively medley of old and new.
All the dancers are skilled and projected good energy and delight in dancing. I will mention three who stood out for this reviewer. Those are Nicole Townsend who demonstrate a “mature” technique in “Duet” her partner Logan Martin and Lawrence Chen in a “Solo” and another “Duet”. Chen demonstrated a quickness of skill in turning and his ability as a partner.
Congratulations to the Oakland Ballet, all the participating artists in Lighting, Costume Design and Wardrobe for such an unusual and exciting group of works. All need to be seen again in a large theater. The Cultural Center’s stage is too small. These works were performed in the center of the auditorium space on a special floor; the audience sat on the stage and on all four sides. It brings the dancers very close to its audience which is not always easy for everyone. But this group succeeded in pleasing and delighting its audience.
(One note: the seating meant the lights were often in the audience’s face making it hard to see the dancers. It’s both a focus problem and seating problem. Everyone adjusted.)
All the dancers, choreographers, technical staff and administration deserve applause for this production. We can hope that it will be repeated in another venue for further admiration.
The dancers appearing in this production are: Lawrence Chen; Lizzie Devaney; Karina Eimon Cesar Lino; William Fowler; Logan Martin; Jasmine Quezada; Lucas Sverdlen; AshleyThopiah; Nicole Townsend; Rebecca Huang. Bravo to them all.